Where has the time gone?! 2014 is now officially half over and it’s time to do a 6-month check-in. I never posted my 2014 goals on this site, but you can click over to my coaching and training site and see them there.

Here are my professional and personal goals for 2014:

Professional:

Grow in my job – I have been in my current job for just over 3 months now and I really love it thus far. Throughout my public health graduate studies, I would have never thought that I would find a job in healthcare technology. It was a topic that never really interested me; however, now that I work in the field, I love it. Not only is healthcare technology important in the United States, but globally, where my heart lies in global health and international development. My job is challenging and rewarding. Each week I am learning new skills that will only improve my work quality and also aid in my future career development. In 2014 I look forward to working hard, learning new skills, and furthering my future career path. I’m still loving my job and I have expanded my skill and knowledge set that is not only valuable in my current job, but in my future career. I’ve been given some more responsible recently, which makes me happy and hopefully that will continue. I hope that I’ll be given some writing assignments by the end of the year that I can dive into since writing is one of my passions.

Grow my business – If you have read my blog for a while you have probably noticed the changes over the past couple of months. I plan to officially launch my new business in a couple of weeks. I started my own coaching and personal training business because it is my passion and I find great satisfaction in helping people achieve their goals. I don’t plan to make a million dollars in my business, but a few extra dollars to help pay my student loans would be nice. I have some interesting plans and opportunities in the future so stay tuned for future developments!My business is doing well. It’s still very small, which I prefer. I only take on about 4-6 clients total between both my personal training and coaching clients. I’m not out there to make a ton of money and I prefer to give each client individualized attention. I am currently in the process of becoming a certified RRCA run coach (I just need to complete a first aid course). I’ve also taught a lot of spin classes over the past few months at Zone 3 Fitness and the Bay Club and really love teaching.

Learn French – This has been one of my goals from early fall 2013. I want a future career in global public health and international development, thus I need to become bilingual, or at least competent at a second language. I’ve been slowly practicing my language skills via software programs, but I will continue in 2014 with french lessons at The Language Exchange in Portland. I don’t naturally pick up language quickly, so this is going to be a tough goal, but it is necessary and important for my future career goals. After traveling in Central America in May, I’ve discovered that I love the Latin American culture and have decided to switch from French to Spanish. I took a year of Spanish in college, but I don’t remember a whole lot. I begin my first class on Monday! 🙂

Personal:

Become more financially stable – The last couple of years have been a bit tough financially. Last year I took a risk with my career and it did not pan out as well as I hoped. The last couple of years were also riddled with unexpected purchases, i.e. lots of car repairs and health bills. My graduate student loans also kicked in and I quickly realized that about a third of my monthly income goes directly to SallieMae and Nelnet. Awesome. With my new job I received an increase in pay from my old one. I need to buy a new car some point this coming year and thus I have begun to put some cash away for that big-ticket item. I’m still driving my little car until it dies for good (or is going to cost me a zillion dollars to fix). I also plan to stash some money away again into my emergency fund since it became low due to said expensive car repairs. For the past few months I have created budgets and reviewed my spending habits to determine where I can cut back. Going into 2014 I feel pretty comfortable with my monthly budget and I have been researching ways to live more frugally. Stay tuned for that journey. Well, my little black car died in March. It was a sad day, but I am very happy with my new car! My father was very generous and gave me a down payment for my car, but I still have a $13,000 car loan plus about $32,000 in student loans. See below for more of my financial goals.

Travel – It’s ironic that one of my main goals is to save more money and live frugally, but I also seek adventure outside the US. I haven’t been to a new country in a couple of years and thus, 2014 is the year I discover a new part of the world. My mind has gone crazy with ideas, but I yet to commit to anything yet. I may travel to South America with a friend, go on a medical mission to a developing country, or take a solo trip to Southeast Asia or Europe. I love daydreaming about traveling the world and I know this year will be the year of an adventure. Anyone looking for a travel buddy? I traveled to Belize and Guatemala with one of my best friends in May for a week and will be going to the Azores Islands in November. All were new countries for me and definitely reignited the travel bug in me. I’ve been resisting the urge to impulse buy a plane ticket to Columbia! I traveled to New Orleans for work in June and absolutely fell in love with the city that I hope to pursue my PhD studies in. Montreal and Newport, RI are also in the planning stages as well as a couple big trips in 2015.

Volunteer more – This past fall I joined the Junior League of Portland, Maine and have met some pretty fabulous and inspiring women. The organization is built on giving back to the community, which is one of the main reasons I joined. I look forward to volunteering around the community with the JLP, but I also hope to give back to my community in other ways. I have been researching various organizations related to my career interests and will be making contact soon so hopefully I can help in any way needed. Junior League is awesome and I think all women should join! 🙂 I’m still seeking out more opportunities to volunteer as well. Since I have more time on my hands due to my hip injury, I am reaching out to a couple of organizations after the holiday.

Read a book once a month (or more) – I love to read and you periodically will have book reviews on my blog. For a collection of old book reviews click HERE. I’m an avid reader and I usually read daily, whether job related papers or pleasure reading. My goal in 2014 is to finish a book at least once a month; however, I would like to read more than just 12 books a month. Heck, in the past 5 days I have almost finished all three Hunger Games books. I have a stack of half-finished books so I will start my reading list there. I fell off the bandwagon on this one, but began back up again in May. I’m doing a summer book challenge which has inspired me to read about a book a week over the past two months. You can find out more information about the book challenge here.

Financial Update:

My Emergency fund is now up to also $1200! My goal is to have about $2000 in it by the end of the year. Right now, I’m a head of my schedule. Currently I put in $100 each month automatically from my checking account, but will increase the monthly payments to $150 in October. I keep my E-fund in an online bank. You can read more about why I use an online bank and how you can earn a free $76 by opening a savings account with Capital One 360. I just learned today that if you open a checking account and make the 5 purchases within 45 days, you’ll also earn an additional $100! Their checking account is fee-free and no foreign transaction fees!

Since March I’ve paid $1512.04 towards my student loans! Since April I’ve been paying an extra $150 towards my SallieMae loans. One of my $778 loans will be paid off this month (YAY!) and the second one will be paid off by hopefully October. I’m planning on selling my tri bike this fall and will use that money to pay off another bigger SallieMae loan. My goal is to pay off my SallieMae loans by the end of December 2015.

My net worth is getting closer to zero! My total net worth was about -$31,223 at the end of December 2013 and over the past six months is now sitting about -$17,896. The main reason that it shifted towards positive by nearly $15,000 is the purchase of my new car. Yes, my car loan currently sits at about $12,500, but my car is worth, according to Kelly Blue Book, $17,000. My investments are doing well. I currently put in 7% of my yearly income into my company’s 403(b) with a company match of almost 7%. I rolled my old 401(k) into a Roth IRA in March and have finally reached over the $6000 mark in April. I am planning to start contributing to my IRA this fall.

I haven’t been very good about sticking to my budget over the past few months. May was expensive because of my vacation. I had planned a head so I knew they were coming. June had some unpredicted extra expenses, such as $300 dentist bill, a few business-related expenses, and a $330 plane ticket to Portugal in November. My goal for the remaining summer months is to reign in my spending and stick to my budget better. I know I will have some extra expenses coming up such as another $90 dentist bill and an eye exam. I just need to stay out of the J. Crew outlet store!

Not to wish away the remaining six months of 2014, but I’m really excited about the prospective of nailing all my goals this year. I feel that I’m in a solid place both personally, financially, and professionally. I know 2016 is going to be a big transition year for me with my future goals of going back to school so I’m happy that I’m well on my way to be able to pursue my dream of attaining my PhD. And hopefully reach a net worth of $0 within the next year! 🙂

Okay, I’m not a hustler in the way you may be thinking. I’m definitely not a pimp or drug-dealer, so please don’t start those rumors!

The Dictionary defines a hustler as an aggressively enterprising person; a go getter. Or a prostitute. I’m definitely NOT a prostitute.

In the personal finance blogging world, we call ourselves side hustlers. I’m a proud side hustler. A side hustler is someone who makes money on the side by doing a variety of things, such as blogging, virtual assisting, mystery shopping, freelance writing, or anything else.

There are a slew of awesome personal finance bloggers out there in the interwebs that describe their side hustles. The beauty of side hustling is that you can do anything that you set your mind to, although I would hope that you would avoid illegal activities!

I first got serious about side hustling in January. This past fall I sat down and took a hard look at my financial landscape. I added up all my debt and all my assets and created my first real monthly budget. I spent some time figuring out a 5 and 10-year plan on where I wanted to be in life both personally, professionally, and financially. I just started a new job with a much higher salary than my previous job. But, my monthly student loan payments more than doubled since my graduate loans came out of there grace period.

Having a storm cloud of over $35,000 of student loan debt hanging over my head scared the crap out of me. I couldn’t find an umbrella big enough to keep me dry. I couldn’t ask for a raise. I already cut back on the extras in my budget to make extra loan payments. I had just started reading a lot of personal finance blogs and discovered side hustling. I was sold.

My Side Hustles

Teach Spin Classes – Since January I have been teaching spin classes at both Zone 3 Fitness and The Bay Club. Since I’m both a personal trainer and certified triathlon and cycling coach, this was a perfect hustle for me. I love it because I get to kick people’s butt in class and also kick my own during class. The money I make teaching classes goes directly to making extra payments on my SallieMae student loans.

Personal Training & Triathlon Coach – I wouldn’t necessarily call this a side hustle because in actuality it is my business. I train several clients in their homes and also coach several athletes in endurance sports. I’m putting this in here because side hustles can be created from things you are passionate about and are good at. I love fitness and triathlons and thus I became a coach and trainer to share my love of the sport and living a healthy life and hopefully changing lives while doing it. And, of course, if you’re looking for a trainer or coach checkout my website – Big Sky Multisport Coaching & Personal Training.

Freelance Writing – I love writing. I’ve always loved writing from an early age and would write stories all day long if I could – especially if it was about horses. I have two blogs myself (I don’t currently make money on either of my blogs, but some people make money with their blogs) and I dabble in freelance writing. I am a staff writer at OneSmartDollar.com and hopefully will be publishing some travel posts on a couple of sites in the very near future. I don’t make a ton of money doing freelance writing at the moment, but I love it and will continue doing it to help develop my writing skills, share my story, and make a few extra bucks.

Selling Stuff on Craigslist/eBay/Amazon/Etc. – This past fall I had to buy a new wardrobe for my new professional-attire job. When I buy new clothes I always try to make an enough to go through my closet and get rid of the clothing that I haven’t worn in a long time. I brought clothes to the consignment shop, sold some online, and then donated the rest. I went through my room and house and also sold things on Craigslist and eBay that I no longer used. I sold an old cycling trainer and old GPS running watch online. I am also planning on selling my triathlon bike at the end of the season in prep for returning to grad school in the near future. So heads up if anyone is looking for a sweet triathlon bike with a power-meter!

Surveys – I fill out online surveys to earn airline miles. I’m not actually making real money doing these, but I count it as a side hustle because those miles count towards my mileage award balances that I can then use to earn free plane tickets. Thus, saving money!

Those are things I do to make an extra $200-$500 a month on top of my monthly salary from my full-time job. All the extra money I make I put towards paying off my student loan debt faster and also stuff into my travel savings account for upcoming trips I have planned.

My advice for people is to look for opportunities to make a few extra bucks doing something you love. You can always sell your junk too. Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Making extra money has allowed me to reach my financial goals quicker than I would if I just stuck to my budget based on my monthly salary income. I’m working to reaching the top of the world, because I’m a hustler baby! 😉

I’m all about tracking my student loans using modern technology. There is no secret that I love using Mint.com to track all my personal finance, but I also utilize other sites as well to track my student loan debt. Of course, being the ultra dork, I also created my own Excel spreadsheet to track my repayment status of each loan. I’m a little OCD if you haven’t figured that out yet.

The Best Websites and Apps to Track Your Student Loans

Mint.com – I LOVE Mint for everything personal finance related. If you haven’t started your free Mint account yet then I suggest you stop reading this right now and do that. Mint allows you to link up all your financial accounts, including bank accounts, credit cards, loans (student, car, house, etc.), and your investment accounts. It uses bank security so all your data is secured. It’s a great tool to look objectively at your entire financial picture at once. Mint will also give you payment due reminders in case you haven’t set up autopay on your loans, which clearly you should do because you often get an interest rate reduction saving you money in the long run! Unfortunately with Mint you can’t apply more extensive tracking on your student loans like some of the options below. However, I am a strong believer that Mint is a great tool to track your personal finances as a whole. Mint also as an app for both the iphone and Android phones.

ReadyFor Zero –ReadyForZero is quickly becoming one of my favorite tools for tracking my student loan debt. Not only can you link all your student loans, but you can also link your credit cards as well. IuseReadyForZero for my student loan debt since I do not have credit card debt, but if you did, you can use this tool for just credit card debt or the combination of the two. Once you link your accountstoReadyForZero, they will create a free personalized debt repayment plan.
The Debt Avalanche Chart in ReadyForZero

ReadyForZero uses secure 256 bit SSL encryption methods, the same as your banks, to ensure that all your data is secure and safe. To create your personalized plan, you must first begin by selecting how much each month you can contribute to your total debt payments. For example, I can budget a maximum of $550-$600 a month for my loan repayments. That includes the $450 I regularly pay for my monthly minimum student loan payments. Normally I can contribute an extra $100 to $150 a month on top of my minimums to pay my debt off faster. ReadyForZero will then automatically calculate estimated total debt payoff end date (4/18 for me!) and how much interest you’ll pay over that timeframe. ReadyforZero uses the Avalanche debt reduction method targeting the loans with the highest interest rate to pay off first. ReadyForZero displays your payment plan in graphical forms using a fun graph where you can watch your debt go down over time and a payment timeline bar. When you pay a loan off it turns gold and displays a trophy! ReadyForZero offers a free basic version and a paid subscription version where you can access your credit score and pay bills from their site. I use the free version. ReadyForZero currently offers an app for the iphone and is working on an Android app.

The ReadyForZero milestone payment timeline – who doesn’t love a trophy at the finishline!

Tuition.io – Tuition.io is similar toReadyForZero. You link up your student loan accounts to their site and they’ll help you create a personalized plan to pay off your loans.Tuition.io provides interactive graphs that displays your debt repayment over time. They will also help you visualize how much you can save if you pay an extra amount towards your loans each month. One of the best features of Tuition.io is that it educates you on the pros and cons of each time of repayment plans offered by student loan companies in case the traditional standard 10 year repayment plan is tough for you to manage. Tuition.io is free to use, but makes its money through if you decide to consolidate your loans. Consolidation can usually reduce your interest rate and reduce your monthly payments thus saving you money. Read the fine print before you explore this option. Tuition.io informed me that I could qualify for loan consolidation with an interest rate of 2.91%! That is a huge decrease from my average of 6.36% amongst my loans. When I researched the option I discovered that it is variable interest rate, meaning that it could change to a much higher rate. When I first graduated from grad school I looked into loan consolidation because my loan payments were too high for me to afford. One of the big reasons I did not end up consolidating was that if you go back to school you cannot put your loans into deferment while attending school like you can with federal loans. So be aware of this caveat. One of the coolest things about Tuition.io that you or someone else can buy “gifts” in the form of student loan payment gift certificates to help you pay off your loans. The “gifts” would make great Christmas or birthday presents! I like tuition.io, but there are still some glitches in the site. The site is still in Beta production and I’m sure over time it will improve.

The Tuition.io debt avalanche chart

SaveUp – SaveUp is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites. It does not really allow you to track your debt like ReadyForZero and Tuition.io, but you can track it as you pay it off. It is more similar to Mint.com. You can link you student loans, bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts to earn credits. These credits can be turned into “plays.” Each day SaveUp gives you 3 plays for chances to win prizes ranging from student loan payments to an around-the-world vacation. Every time you make a loan payment or add money to your savings account you earn credits to earn more plays. You can turn up to 500 credits into 5 plays a day. The more you save and pay off debt the more chances you have to win prizes. You’re awarded for good financial choices! I’ve been playing for about 5 weeks now. I haven’t won anything yet, but I’m hoping someday I will. SaveUp just makes student loan debt a little bit more exciting instead of depressing!

As you can see there are many ways to track your student loan debt as well as all your personal finances in one or more places. I use Mint and SaveUp on a daily basis and check ReadyForZero on a bi-monthly schedule when my loan payments are processed. I also track everything in my personal finance spreadsheets on Excel. I’m a stronger believer in being proactive with your personal finances and there are no excuses when you can sign up for a website and/or app that does all the work for you!

What tools do you use to track your debt? Are there other websites and apps that I should try?

Disclaimer: I have not been paid by any of the above companies for this post. All the opinions above are my own. I am just a strong believer in the above tools to manage your personal finances and I encourage others to check them out.

I’m now officially in my late 20s. Oh the horror! I will turn the ripe old age of 30 on March 8, 2017. My goal is also to return to graduate school for my PhD by Fall 2017. For the next 3-4 years I have some big goals that I hope to achieve with a lot of hard work and hopefully a bit of luck.

A large majority of my goals are related to financial stability and freedom. Hence why I created this blog; I want to convey my journey in personal finance, as well as travel and life. Through this blog I am very candid about my personal finances. Personal finances have always been a taboo topic in modern American culture, and I believe that money needs to be discussed more openly.

According to the NerdWallet, as of March 2014, the average American household debt is:

Average credit card debt: $15,252

Average mortgage debt: $152,209

Average student loan debt: $32,986

Those statistics are scary figures and I personally believe that a part of it has to do with poor personal finance education and discipline. I believe that the more open people are about their money and personal finance, the more others are aware of it and the more educated they become about money.

I grew up with a pretty good understanding of money. My father really enjoys lecturing me about personal finance, investing, and really anything else. Personally, I think he just likes to hear himself talk half the time. I have a BA in biochemistry from a small state university and a MPH in public health from a private university. I graduated with a total of $44,103 of student loans (not including interest over time).

I’m pretty good with money and tend to save more than I spend. The past few years I have been competing in the sport of triathlon, which I absolutely adore and it is a major part of my lifestyle. The sport of triathlon is not cheap. The further I got into the sport, the more I wanted a better and more expensive bike and to compete in bigger and more expensive races. I ended up spending way more than I probably should have on equipment and expenses related to triathlon (I never went in debt because of these purchases). I don’t regret my purchases, but I had wished that I focused a bit more on paying off student loans etc.

Now that I achieved one of my main goals – to become an Ironman (you can read more about my triathlon life on www.bigskymultisportcoaching.com), I have decided to refocus more on my career and financial goals.

I keep my goals in my personal finance spreadsheet that I created to keep track of everything from my monthly budget, bills, student loans, vacation budgets, etc. I’ve decided to make my goals public to allow others to hold me accountable for my goals and also to show other 20-somethings that educating yourself and making personal finance a priority at a young age will only pay off in the future (I mean that both literally and figuratively).

My 2016 goals get a bit fuzzy because it’s hard to predict where I’ll be in 3 years. My primary career goal is to work abroad a year through a public health fellowship or possibly teach English abroad before heading back for my PhD in 2017. Ultimately I would like a position that pays a decent living wage while overseas so I can stock pile money and continue to pay off my student loans, but I’m not sure what might happen in the job front.

As you can see, my major themes involve paying off student loan debt (you can read more about my plan to payoff $20,000 of student loans in 3 years HERE) and to contribute to my retirement accounts.

Note: I have also created a unique page above in the menu for this post so I continuously check in and make sure I’m on my path to financial freedom! 🙂

Let’s face it. Shit happens. Your car breaks down. You slip and fall on ice and have to take an ambulance ride to the hospital. Emergencies happen and we must be able to pay the price for them when they occur. Hopefully, they do not occur often.

Any personal finance advisor will tell you that you need to build up a separate emergency fund savings account to use if some unexpected expense occurs. The E-fund should only be used in true emergency situations. A huge sale on shoes at the mall does not count (sorry ladies). I’m talking about a roof leak, a major car repair, a medical bill, etc.

Many personal finance advisors will argue how much you should save in your E-fund. Lynnette Khalfani, author of Zero Debt for College Grads, suggests starting with 3 months’ worth of your monthly living expenses. Suze Orman in The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke, suggests starting with 3-6 months’ worth of living expenses. On her website, she now suggests 8 months of living expenses. Some people suggest just a $1000, especially for those of us who are in our 20s.

Personally, I believe that everyone sure have at least a $1000 in a separate bank account for emergency purchases only. Once the minimum is saved then I would suggest building up to 6 months of living expenses. In today’s economy and job market it is vital to have enough money built up to afford to live if you lose your job tomorrow. I recently read that the average job hunter will spend about 6-7 months looking for a job depending on their desired job market and skills.

It is important to have enough funds to pay for the bare basics, such as housing, food, medical insurance, and gas/car payments. If you find yourself without any income for extended times then you can (and need) to cut back on a lot of the extras, such as cable, Netflix, shopping, etc. in order to survive.

A well-stocked E-fund is not going to occur overnight for most people. It is something that a person needs to save and contribute to on a regular basis over time. My goal is to build up to an E-fund of 6 months of living expenses. To calculate how much that would be, I first went back to my basic budget that I created in my excel spreadsheet. I looked at my hard expenses (i.e., rent, cell phone bill, student loans) and my soft expenses (i.e., food, gas, gym, etc.) to determine what my monthly living expenses were totaling. I’m a person that would much rather overestimate when it comes to my bills and budget so I know I have a little flexibility in my budget in case I go over it. Khalfani suggests making a budget and then adding 20% to the total because most people underestimate their monthly expenses.

I know if I was to lose my job tomorrow, I could eliminate such things as my Netflix and YMCA membership as well as put my student loans into forbearance if I absolutely had to (I don’t suggest doing this unless its comes down to being homeless and hungry). I calculated my monthly living expenses including the extras and came up with a value of $1100 per month. Thus, I am aiming for about $6600 in my E-fund.

If I wasn’t saving up to buy a new car in mostly cash at the end of the year, I would most definitely make my E-fund the priority. However, I decided to spend the next 3 years building up my E-fund. I broke my big goal of a minimum of $6600 into 3 smaller milestone goals:

End of 2014 – $1500

End of 2015 – $3500

End of 2016 – $6600

I did this for several reasons. The main one being that I have multiple financial goals that I am working towards over the next 3 years. My #1 priority goal in 2014 is to save between $6000-$7000 for a new car. In 2015 my main goal is to pay off the purchase of the car and also to contribute more to my E-fund. In 2016 my main goal is to build my E-fund and pay off my SallieMae loans.

I have further broken down each goal into monthly payments to make it easier for me in the long run. Monthly payments look like:

Year

Current Balance

Target Balance

Monthly Contribution

2014

$868

$1500

$125

2015

$1500

$3500

$167

2016

$3500

$6600

$258

Note: I started off 2014 with a balance of close to $800 in my E-fund from 2013, thus I am contributing less at the moment each month because of my effort to save more for a new car. I am currently contributing about $65 a month to the E-fund.

As you can see, it makes it easier to break your big goals into smaller goals over time. You don’t need to contribute much at the beginning if you truly can’t afford it (I’m talking to you poor recently graduated college grad with a boatload of student loans!), but at least start with something. Even $10 a week can help in the long run.

My suggestions for saving for an E-fund:

Start with a minimum of a $1000 and then work towards at least 6 months of living expenses

Break your ultimate big goal into smaller milestone goals

Use your budget to determine your average monthly living expenses and then to calculate your 6 months E-fund goal

Save your E-fund in a separate bank account (I prefer using an online bank account, such as Barclays, instead of my normal Credit Union account to take away the temptation of using that money for non-emergencies)

If you use your E-fund for valid reasons (or not valid reasons), you need to make it a priority to replace the money you used

Start small and contribute often to make it a habit

Credit cards should be used as the last ditch effort for an E-fund payment

Do you have any suggestions and/or advice for saving towards an E-fund? What do you think the average E-fund amount should be?

Last post I mentioned at the end that my plan is to pay off at least HALF of my student loan debt by 2017. Why 2017? Well, that is my target date for returning to graduate school to earn my PhD. Of course, opportunities may arise and my plans may change, but by end of 2017 I want half my student loan debt gone.

My student loan debt weighs on me heavily. Student loan debt isn’t bad debt to have. Creditors look at it as good debt and the investment in my education was well worth it. But, it makes me nervous. There are so many other things that I want to pursue in life and I feel like my student loan debt holds me back like a ball and chain.

If I continue to pay my loans monthly on the standard 10-year plan, I will pay all my loans off by the end of 2023. That’s about 9 years from today. I’ll be 36 by then. Yikes! My ultimate goal is to pay them off by 2020… three years earlier. Most people will probably debate me on this choice, but I do not want to have children until my student loans are paid off in full. Now, children are definitely not in my 5 year plan, and the outlook in the 10 year plan is so-so. Children are expensive and if I choose to have one then I want to make sure that I can afford the lifestyle that my future child deserves and I will be able to afford a portion of their future education.

As you can see, I am nearly half way to paying off my undergrad student loans. My main goal is pay off half my student loans by 2017. Let’s break them down into small goals:

I want to pay off my entire undergraduate student loans before my return to grad school (remaining balance is about $11,000).

I will continue to pay the minimum on my Nelnet (grad loans) each month resulting in over $3400 in payments each year. In 3 years that should reduce those loans by about $10,000.

In the next 3 years I am looking to pay off about $20,000of my total current student loan debt. That’s a big number! Yikes! How am I going to do this? There are several ways I can go about paying off my loans.

Snowball Debt Reduction – This plan is recommended by Dave Ramsey. He suggests paying off the smallest debt first to gain momentum. You first start by paying the minimum on all your debts except for the lowest debt where you contribute extra to pay that debt off first. Once that debt is paid off, you use the money you used to pay off the first debt to pay off the second lowest debt. This method continues until you are debt free!

Avalanche Debt Reduction – This plan is the opposite of the snowball effect. You pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first because you’ll save money in the long run. Put your debts in line from highest to lowest interest rate and begin paying off the highest interest rate debt first while paying the minimums on the remaining debts. Once the first debt is paid off, use that money to pay off the next highest interest rate debt until you’re debt free!

My Plan of Attack

I’ve played around with multiple plans of attack to see what best fits my needs. With a Google search I found an awesome debt reduction spreadsheet that you can download from Vertex42.com. I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s simple to use and you can play around with different debt reduction methods. The only downfall I found was you can only enter up to 10 debts. I entered all my loan balances with interest rates and let the spreadsheet work its magic. I changed the options from snowball to avalanche to custom to see what the interest rates over time would be. They all came within about $200 of each other. Before this spreadsheet I was drawn more towards the Snowball method because I am not a patient person. I want to see a return on my investment now and not years down the road (although I’m learning that in personal finance you have to be patient sometimes, especially with retirement investments).

A Glimpse at my Debt Reduction Spreadsheet

With the snowball method I would pay about $7151 in interest, with the avalanche method I would pay about $6961 and with a custom ranking I would pay about $7076. I have decided to go with a custom ranking similar to the debt tsunami method because my focus is on paying off my SallieMae (undergrad loans).

I identified at least $100 a month I can use to pay off my student loans in addition to my normal monthly payments. My goal is to attack my $745 SallieMae loans first, with a target payoff date of September 2014 and January 2015 respectively. Then I will hit up my other undergrad loans from lowest to highest. My father has offered to give me additional money to put towards my student loans when we sell our family camp. I have no idea when or how much that might be, but when it happens I plan on applying it to my highest SallieMae loan.

This is my plan for now. Things may change, but I’m happy with plan going forward. I’m motivated to get this weight off my shoulders!

How are you paying off your student loans? Are you paying any additional money each month to pay them off faster? What method do you utilize?

Oh, student loans… where do we start? The average college graduate is over $20,000+ in debt when they graduate. Not only do college grads graduate with a load of debt, but they also graduate into a terrible job market. I graduated from undergrad early in December 2008, right when the US economy began to tank. Luckily I had a part-time job at the mall, but it took me over 3 months to find a “real” job. My first “real” job was a temp position at a large biotech company. I worked there for 9 months. When I realized that the company was not going to hire me permanently, I began my job search again. Finally, I secured a full-time job in January 2010, where I worked for close to 4 years at a small biotech company. In May 2010, I began my Masters in Public Health program, which I finished in December 2012. I once again I began my job search in 2012 to find my first “career” job in public health. I had several interviews where I was the second choice candidate, which was nothing short of frustrating. In September I landed my current job that I absolutely love.

Now, what does my job search have to do with my student loans? A lot of reasons! The day you sign your name on the loan paperwork, you’re stuck with them until you pay them off or die. Even if you go through bankruptcy you are still stuck with your student loans! The government has designed multiple repayment plans based on your current income to help (or ensure) you pay your loans back.

When you graduate college you get a grace period of 6 months before your loan payments kick in. The intent for the grace period is that you will find a job, settle in and make some money so you can actually pay your loans back. With the current economic status in the US, many students haven’t found a job during that time period and/or are unemployment. Not a fun position to be in as you can imagine.

My undergraduate loans kicked into repayment around May 2009. I was taking several classes at the local community college at the time so my SallieMae loans went into deferment. However, I continued to pay my private loan and Perkins loan throughout my time in school. Once my classes were done, I began paying the minimums on my SallieMae loans, which at the time were about $144 a month. When I began grad school, my federal loans once again went into deferment. I was lucky that my loans were all Stafford Subsidized loans, meaning that the government picked up the tab on the interest while I was in school. Throughout my grad school years I only paid my Perkins Loans (which I paid off about a year ago!) and my private loan (which I just paid off in January with a little help from my father).

During the summer of 2012 I didn’t take any classes because I had taken all the courses offered during the summer term. The school made me take a “leave of absence” for the summer because I was not taking any classes (this was a major pain in my butt and I had to sign a bunch of pointless paperwork) and to my surprise SallieMae immediately sent me a bill for my undergrad loans! I was not ready for those payments during that summer, but I managed. Once I began my final semester in September, my loans went back into deferment until January. I finished my MPH degree in December 2012. SallieMae wanted money again on January 2nd. This time it was about $150 a month, which I have been paying every month since then. My grad loans through Nelnet (plus one undergrad loan) began repayment in August.

I have always utilized the standard repayment plan on my SallieMae loans. However, after calculations of my various student loans, I was going to pay over $650 a month on student loan payments each month… more than a third of my monthly income! I knew I could not afford those payments at the monthly income that I was making. I looked into consolidating my student loans, but was weary about the idea knowing that I wanted to go back for my PhD in a few years. If you consolidate your student loans, most of the time if you return to school, you are not granted deferment on your loans and must make monthly payments. A friend of mine suggested looking into the graduated loan repayment plan instead of consolidating my loans.

I decided to change my Nelnet loans from the standard repayment plan to the graduated repayment plan, converting my monthly payment of $300+ to $182 a month. With this change my total monthly student loan payments came about $350 a month. Making it much more affordable for someone who generally lives paycheck-to-paycheck.

In January, I began my annual review of my student loans. My private loan was paid off in January with the help of my father, resulting in $50 freeing up from my budget. At this time I also dumped my $100 Verizon cell phone bill for a monthly $12 plan (post coming soon about that!) freeing up addition money. When I began examining my Nelnet loans closely, I realized that a few of my loan balances were more than the original amount I had taken out due to interest. This did not make me happy. I succeeded to go back and edit my monthly budget to accommodate a higher student loan payment. The next day I called Nelnet to change my repayment plan from graduated back to standard. My monthly payments almost doubled from $182 to $291 a month.

This past month I had a small $368 loan from one of my summer courses that was really annoying me and so I paid that off. In an effort to pay my student loans off faster, I decided to change my monthly Nelnet payments to an even $300 a month. I will be paying an additional $13.75 a month. That amount is just cents compared to the total loan balance of over $23,000, but every little penny counts over the repayment period. As of March, I will be paying about $450 a month in student loan payments and I aim to pay at least an extra $100 a month to pay them off faster as well. I will talk more about my plan of attack to pay my loans off in less than 10 years in my next post.

I mentioned a couple of loan repayment plans above, but let’s take a closer look at the various options for federal student loans:

Standard Repayment Plan – A fixed monthly payment of at least $50 a month for 10 years. You will pay the least amount of interest on this plan compared to other plans.

Graduated Repayment Plan – Monthly payments are lower at first and generally increase every 2 years for the term of the loan – usually 10 years. You’ll pay a bit more interest on this repayment plan than the standard plan.

Extended Repayment Plan – Monthly payments are either fixed or graduated for a loan term of 25 years. You must have at least a certain amount of student loan debt to qualify for this repayment plans and will pay significantly more in interest than any 10-year repayment plan.

Income-Based Repayment Plans (IBR) – The maximum monthly payment will only be about 15% of your discretionary income and your monthly payments will increase as your income increases over 25 years. You must qualify for this repayment plan.

Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan – The maximum monthly payment will only be about 10% of your discretionary income and your monthly payments will increase as your income increases over 20 years. You must qualify for this repayment plan.

Income-Contingent Repayment Plan – The maximum monthly payment is based on your income. Each year payments are determined based on your adjusted gross income, your family size, and your total loan debt. Your payments change as your income changes for up to 25 years.

Income-Sensitive Repayment Plan – Your monthly payments are based on your annual income and will change as your income changes. The loan term is 10 years and you will pay more interest than the standard plan.

As you can see, if you can afford it, utilize the standard repayment plan because you will pay the least amount of interest. However, if you just graduated and got a low paying job and really can’t afford to pay your student loans, contact your lender about options. Always, pay your student loans each month, even if it is just a little bit of money. In the long run, you will be thankful that you did.

In my next post I will discuss my plan to pay off half my student loan debt by 2017!

Reagan has nothing to do with this post, but who doesn’t like cute pictures of dogs?

I have officially entered my late 20s as of this past Saturday. I will admit; I’m still in denial that I’m now 27 years old. Where has the time gone?

Looking back a decade ago, when I was just a wee 17 year old high school girl, I never predicted I’d be where I’m at now in my life. I pictured my life so much different than it is today. But is that a bad thing? I have a Masters in Public Health. I have completed my first Ironman. I have experienced losing a parent at a young age. I have had many ups and downs on the roller coaster of life.

My life may not be the so-called dream that I thought it would be when I was 17. But that’s life. I am content and happy where I am in my life. Could things be better? Sure. Could things be far worst? Of course!

Within the past year I finally feel like I found myself and what path I really want to pursue in life. Totally cliché I know! It amazes me that as the older I get, the more I grow as a human being. What I wanted at 17 is different than what I wanted at 21. What I wanted at 21 was different than what I wanted at 25 and so forth. I’m sure when I hit 30 than I will want other things in life as well. I believe that we evolve as we age and become wiser and better people. I finally feel that I have outgrown my immature ways and view the world differently. I don’t expect the world to cater to my needs; instead, I must work hard and consistently to meet my own needs.

I’ve decided that each year on my birthday I am going to set goals based on my age number to accomplish by my next birthday. I’m a very goal-oriented person so setting goals makes me happy; but I think it will also help me in my pursuit for my ultimate career and life goals.

Welcome to my first post of my new series, The True Costs of College, where I will share my story of student loan debt, ways to tackle debt, and ways to minimize or avoid debt to pay for one of the most important investments you’ll ever make – your college education.

For a large majority of American college graduates, student loans are the storm clouds above our heads. For many of us, those storm clouds will be circling around our heads for many years, possibly decades. Personally, I think student loan debt in the United States has always been a taboo topic until recently. Everyone knew that recent college graduates were thousands of dollars in debt, but no one really wanted to admit there was something wrong with that.

Personally, I believe that:

A college education is becoming way more expensive than it should be making it unattainable for most people without taking on an insurmountable debt,

Incoming college freshmen are extremely uneducated about student loans, and

We need to start talking about it.

I graduated from a state university in December 2008. According to a study conducted by The Project of Student Debt, in 2008 67% of students graduating from a four-year college/university had student loan debt. The average debt level for graduating seniors with student loans was $23,200 in 2008. In 2004 the average was $18,650, an increase of 20% from 2004 to 2008.

The average 2012 student loan debt for someone who graduated from a Maine college/university is $29,352. Maine is ranked 7th in the country for highest student loan debt according to the most recent data at The Project of Student Debt. I attended a small state university where the average student loan debt in 2012 was $26,319. About 87% of students graduated with some debt.

According to the Institute of Higher Education Policy, about 14% of the 37 million borrowers with outstanding loan balances have at least one past due loan account. Two out of every 5 borrowers are delinquent at some point in the first five years of repayment. Now, these figures don’t even include the average student credit card debt of about $3000.

Of course, if you go on to graduate school you are most likely going to fund your entire education through loans adding on tens of thousands of dollars if not more. Education in America is becoming ever more expensive by the year. I think that the cost is becoming ridiculous, but I do believe that we should pay for some of our higher education. Yes, I hate my student loans and I believe that the cost of my education was probably higher than it should cost, but I believe that I should pay for it. A college education is a choice not a right. I made the choice to attend college and graduate school because I believe in the power of education and furthering my knowledge.

I think one of the problems we have in America with the ever-increasing student loan debt is that we are not freely talking about it and not educating our high school students who will enroll in college soon. There are so many things I know now that I wish I knew as an 18-year-old college freshmen.

I have decided to be candid and open about my student loan debt and share my learnings in hopes of educating our future college students.

Source – Huff Post (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Source: Huff Post <— Article includes a great infographic about student loan debt

My Student Loan Debt Story

I began college in the Fall of 2005. I first went to a small private liberal arts college in NH for my first semester. I was lucky that I had a lot of grants and scholarships that paid for about 90% of my costs. I didn’t like the college and transferred to a small liberal arts state university where I finished out my degree. Again, my first two years at the school were low in student loans because I had grants and scholarships. I quickly discovered that as you move up in years in college you begin to lose those grants and scholarships and gain more loans. I finished college a semester early, although I could have finished an entire year early has I known (that’s another story for another time). I graduated undergrad just as the economy tanked in 2008 and struggled finding a job for several months.

I worked as a temp at a large biotech company until I found my first “real” job in January 2010. I worked at that company for almost 4 years. In 2010 I decided I wanted to go back to graduate school to earn my Masters in Public Health degree. I attended another Maine university (a private school) as an online student and I was able to work full-time as well. I finished my MPH in December 2012 after 2.5 years of full-time school and work.

I personally funded about 95% of my entire education. My parents paid very little of my education. My mom paid the 1.5 years I lived in an apartment during my undergrad years, and that’s about it. During my junior year of college I took out a $5000 private loan to paid for living expenses and also the costs of applying to medical school (although I chose not to apply later that summer). Here is the breakdown of my entire student loan debt as of March 3, 2014:

Undergrad Loans

Year

Original Amount

Current Amount – 3/3/14

Interest Type

Year 1 – 1st Semester

$ 1,312.00

$ 745.88

Variable/Subsidized

Year 1 – 2nd Semester

$ 1,312.00

$ 745.37

Variable/Subsidized

Year 2 – Full Year

$ 3,500.00

$ 2,854.02

Fixed/Subsidized

Year 3 – Full Year

$ 5,500.00

$ 4,825.22

Fixed/Subsidized

Year 4 – 1st Semester

$ 2,750.00

$ 2,480.00

Fixed/Subsidized

Year 1 – Gate Loan

$ 1,300.00

$ –

Variable

Year 3 – Private Loan

$ 5,000.00

$ –

Variable

Year 1 – Perkins

$ 2,000.00

$ –

Fixed

Total

$ 22,674.00

$ 11,650.49

Grad Loans

Semester

Original Amount

Current Amount – 3/3/14

Interest Type

Summer 2010

$ 1,714.00

$ 1,716.06

Fixed/Subsidized

Fall 2010

$ 3,351.00

$ 3,354.83

Fixed/Subsidized

Spring 2011

$ 3,435.00

$ 3,438.93

Fixed/Subsidized

Summer 2011

$ 368.00

$ –

Fixed/Subsidized

Fall 2011

$ 4,004.00

$ 4,008.63

Fixed/Subsidized

Spring 2012

$ 4,128.00

$ 4,132.98

Fixed/Subsidized

Fall 2012

$ 4,429.00

$ 4,669.01

Fixed/Unsubsidized

Total

$ 21,429.00

$ 21,320.44

Total Debt

$ 44,103.00

Remaining Balance

$ 32,970.93

Of course, the above figures do not take into account interest over the life of the loan, which will most likely add an additional $6000-$7000 to the total.

Next time I plan to discuss different repayment options for student loans and my plan of attack to pay off my debt.

Do you have student loan debt? How much? Do you think as Americans we should be responsible for paying for our college education?

The first step that I took to gain financial stability was to make a budget. Well, I actually made about 500 different budgets. I’m a wee bit obsessed with making budgets now. I’m beginning to think that I should have been an accountant.

My main budgeting method is Mint.com. If you don’t use Mint then I highly recommend that you hop on that train. It’s completely free and you can upload all your banking data plus investments, car and house loans, and student loans. It’s a great way to keep track of your money and debt and also your overall net worth. I find that Mint is a helpful tool in determining where your money is going and ways to cut your budget.

Along with my Mint account, I also created about 100 different types of budgets through Excel. I tried out a bunch of different budgeting temples offered through Microsoft Excel, but none of them really met my needs. Thus, I created my own from scratch. From there, it involved into about a 10-sheet spreadsheet containing my yearly budget, monthly bills, student loan details, and three-year finance goals.

A glimpse at my budgeting spreadsheet

A few of my three-year financial goals include: purchasing and paying off a new car by 12/31/15, paying off my SallieMae student loans (currently about $9200) by 12/31/16, and a volunteer trip to Africa in November 2015. I’ve calculated the amount I need to transfer to each of my corresponding savings accounts each pay check in order to meet my goals by my deadline.

By creating my own budgeting spreadsheet I was able to add everything I needed into one spreadsheet that was easy for me to edit, read, and keep track of my income and expenses. I also color-code everything because, well, I’m a bit obsessed at the moment.

A lot of people get overwhelmed with budgeting. Hence, why so many people are in debt and/or spend money on useless or unneeded things. Here is how I went about creating my budgets:

Determine your monthly “soft expenses,” i.e. groceries, gas, gym memberships, coffee shops, etc. (soft expenses include items that have more fluid costs each month and ones that you could probably cut back on if needed)

At this point, decided if you prefer software/website programs such as Mint, or if you would rather create your own budgets through Excel

Subtract all your expenses from your monthly income

Hopefully you have money left over! If you don’t, then you need to readjust your expenses. Start with your soft expenses first. Trust me, there are ways to cut back on things.

Stash your extra money into a savings account. You should always pay yourself first! If you have goals, such as a vacation, open a second savings account to put money away for this expense.

If you have a lot of debt, especially credit card debt, put extra money towards paying those debts off! You can probably cut back on going out to eat or going to the movies to put extra money towards those extra payments.

Stay on budget throughout the month! And check back throughout the month to see how you’re doing.

Budgeting shouldn’t be hard. Yes, it may not be fun because for most people, it acts as a wake-up call for where your money is going. You work hard for your money so why put it down the drain on stupid purchases or wasteful spending!